ustxtxb_obs_1993_06_18_50_00003-00000_000.pdf

T HE TEXAS server JUNE 18, 1993 VOLUME 85, No. 12 FEATURES Gliding into Adjournment By James Cullen 5 Zoning in Houston By Tim Fleck . 7 West Dallas Diplomacy By Carol Countryman 10 Organizing Around Chavez By Denise Bezick 17 DEPARTMENTS Molly Ivins Editorials Senate Election and the Legislature Interview Mexico Buys Free.Trade By Don Hazen 12 Las Americas Death, Drugs and Free Trade By John Ross 15 Speaking Out All He Can Be By Rick Brown 19 Books and the Culture AIDS, Life and Art Review by Steven G. Kellman 20 Borderline Fiction Review by Miguel Bedolla-Gonzalez 21 Afterword Edifice Complex By Char Miller 23 Political. Intelligence 24 E DAYS AFTER BOB KRUEGER Tlost the first round of the U.S. Senate election, by claiming second place to make the runoff with Kay Bailey Hutchison, the Georges spoke to a Houston business group meeting at a downtown Austin hotel. The topic of the mid-day talk was the defeat of the proposed school funding amendments and the difficult task that faced Krueger. Both of the Georges, Austin-based political consultants George Shipley and George Christian, were betting on Krueger to place, but not to win, in the runoff against Kay Bailey Hutchison. The predictions of both were fulfilled when Krueger on June 5 lost by a twoto-one margin. Shipley, one of the most highly regarded political consultants in the state, began his luncheon talk with a disclaimer, explaining that he could say very little because he had a client in the race. He did say the runoff was “Kay Bailey Hutchison’s to lose.” Christian who, yes, we all know, served as LBJ’s press aide had no client in the race and had a different agenda.. “If Krueger loses,” Christian said, “there will be a Democratic primary to select a candidate to run against Kay Bailey Hutchison in 1994. If the Democrats pick a liberal, the Republicans will have a target to clobber in the general election.” Such a choice, Christian predicted and it was obvious that Christian was referring to former attorney general Jim Mattox would be a liability for the entire Democratic ticket, including Governor Ann Richards. The whole affair was unseemly, like discussing your uncle’s probate before he’s even moved into intensive care. But the candidacy of Bob Krueger, who at that point had only failed two-and-a-half times to be elected to the U.S. Senate, was already moribund. A month later, at the post-runoff wake at the Capitol Marriott in Austin, Democratic mourners were stunned not by Krueger’s loss, but by the margin by which he was beaten. Greg Hartman, who worked for Senator Carlos Truan of Corpus Christi and more recently for Comptroller John Sharp before being drafted to run the Krueger campaign, Seemed relieved that it was all over. “Maybe we’ll get Clinton’s numbers,” Hartman said early in the evening, referring to the 38 percent showing up in Texas polls as supporting the President. \(In the end Krueger didn’t even do that well, winning only 33 percent of the numbers to move,” Hartman said. “We couldn’t get any free media \(press coverage media, according to Hartman, failed to define Krueger. Asked about the changing style and content of the TV campaign, Hartman said the electorate just seemed intractable. “You only do something for so long and if it’s not working you try something else,” Hartman said. “It’s kind of like bass fishing. You only troll for so long in one spot then you move.” \(In the week after the election, Hartman was one of very few people who would even admit to having worked on the campaign. Many of those who directed the campaign, when asked, said they had very little to do with it or were only marginally But the Democratic candidate to fill the Senate seat vacated by Lloyd Bentsen was selected by the Richards brain trust, which includes her son-in-law Kirk Adams, Shipley of Shipley & Associates and Jack Martin of Public Strategies. Involved with them in running the campaign were Austin ad-agency executive Roy Spence, political consultant Mark McKinnon and direct-mail specialist Dave Goldman. Treasury Secretary Bentsen, whose interests in Austin are often represented by Jack Martin, also had a great deal to say in the choice of his appointed successor. One political consultant, who asked not to be named, said that only two Democrats could have won the race. The Governor, who could haVe named herself interim Senator, and then run in the election, or Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Henry Cisneros. “Once you got beyond those two, you were into the second string the congressional delegation and Bob Krueger.” But surely those who do the political thinking for Richards could have looked six months into the future and foreseen Kay Bailey Hutchison looking into a camera and saying “Bob Krueger has already run fOr the Senate two times and lost …” This was a souffle that wouldn’t rise the first or the second time. What sort of beating could make it rise the third time? So even if this race was one that the Democrats were likely to lose, it was not a race for the Republicans to win by a 67-33 margin. A political consultant interviewed for this story suggested that the lack of a real Democratic message probably discouraged turnout. “The Texas Observer crowd and the libs would probably say, ‘Run a Jim Hightower campaign that will appeal to Democrats,'” he said: “And this time they’re probably right. Had they done that they would probably have got 40 What went wrong, then? “The message, the candidate and organization,” said yet another Democratic political operative who insisted on speaking off the record. Political campaigns are driven by either personality, issues or a combination of both. Krueger, as former Observer editor Chandler Davidson argued from Rice University, “is an intelligent, hard-working and humane man.” Yes. But no one ever said he EDITORIALS Bob Krueger, By George THE TEXAS OBSERVER 3